‘Industrial Scale’ Spying Lands UK in Europe’s Highest Court

Originally posted by Katie Collins on April 10, 2015, on WIRED.co.UK—
“A group of humans rights organisations will take the British government to the European Court of Human Rights over allegedly indiscriminate mass surveillance of communications.

Amnesty International, Liberty, Privacy International and Bytes for All, along with several other partners will pursue the case based on documents provided by NSA whistleblowerEdward Snowden about the mass-scale spying programmes used by the UK and US known as Prism and Tempora. The NGOs believe the programmes contravene British citizens’ rights to privacy and freedom of expression, as enshrined in Articles 8 and 10 in the European Convention of Human Rights.

“The UK government’s surveillance practices have been allowed to continue unabated and on an unprecedented scale, with major consequences for people’s privacy and freedom of expression. No-one is above the law and the European Court of Human Rights now has a chance to make that clear,” says Nick Williams, Amnesty International’s legal counsel.”